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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoChris Young | The Canadian PressA Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer pats a colleague on the back before a news conference about an alleged terrorism plot.

By Ian AustenTHE NEW YORK TIMES • Tuesday April 23, 2013 6:39 AM

OTTAWA, Ontario — The Royal Canadian Mounted Police yesterday announced the arrest of two men
who are accused of planning to derail a passenger train in an al-Qaida-linked plot. The police,
saying that the investigation was continuing, offered little in the way of details or evidence at a
news conference in Toronto. Canadian politicians and government officials were similarly
reticent.

Assistant Police Commissioner James Malizia said that the two suspects had received “direction
and guidance” from “al-Qaida elements living in Iran,” but that there was no evidence that the
effort was sponsored by the government of Iran.

He declined to explain how the link to al-Qaida had been made.

The two suspects were identified as Chiheb Esseghaier, 35, who has been living in Toronto, and
Raed Jaser, 30, of Montreal. The police said they were not Canadian citizens but declined to
identify their nationalities or to describe their immigration status in Canada.

Chief Police Superintendent Jennifer Strachan said that the two men had studied train movements
and rail lines in and around Toronto and were plotting to attack a train operated by Via Rail
Canada, the government-owned rail system, within Canada.

The police declined to identify what train or train line they planned to target or to describe
how the derailment was to occur. Via Rail, in conjunction with Amtrak, runs a train from Toronto to
New York’s Penn Station.

The police emphasized that the public was never in “imminent danger.” Officials said that the
two suspects had been under constant observation and that contingency plans had been made.

Both the police and David Jacobson, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, indicated that the FBI and
other American law-enforcement and intelligence agencies were involved in the investigation. No
one, however, offered any specifics about that involvement or indicated if the plot had a
cross-border element.

“These arrests were the result of extensive cross-border cooperation, which is the hallmark of
our relationship,” Jacobson said in a statement. “Dedicated professionals on both sides of the
border brought these arrests to fruition.”

The arrests were made shortly before Canada’s House of Commons began debate that would expand
the powers of police and intelligence agencies in suspected terrorism cases.